SACRAMENTO, Calif. — WellSpace Health, the regional organization that's been fielding all local calls made to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline says they had more than 65,000 calls in a 12-month period after the pandemic began.
As light rails go by one of the WellSpace Health buildings in Midtown, cyclists, cars and people make their way through a busy intersection and back into their daily routines about 19 months after a pandemic first flipped everyone’s lives upside down.
“When we have a sudden change in our identity like that, it could make us question our life," Dr. Jonathan Porteus, a licensed clinical psychologist and CEO of WellSpace Health, said.
Inside their brick building, people wait on the other side of a phone call, ready to serve as a lifeline.
"Really what’s important is that you’re calling someone who is there in that dark space," Porteus said. "They’re willing to pick up the phone.”
WellSpace Health answers every local call made to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They are the default in about 50 counties.
Porteus says, once the pandemic hit, their calls skyrocketed by 40% just from March to April in 2020. He says they took 65,000 crisis calls in a 12-month window. It’s the biggest jump in calls they’ve ever experienced.
"Yes, there’s been increased stress and increased suicidal thinking and ideation across the board but the act of suicide, the dying by suicide, the one place where it’s actually gone up is with teenagers," he said. "People who have been isolated, people who are exposed to more stress at home, violence even at home, kids who have been forced to be around the people they’re frightened of in a family with a lot of expressed emotion.”
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Lately, calls have also been coming from people in crisis as they’re coming out of isolation.
“They’re having to reintegrate from society, they’re having to learn how to be around other people, and a lot of cases, they’re having to learn how to be around other people that may cause additional stress in their life," Ben Avey, Chief Public Affairs Officer for WellSpace Health, said.
Over the weekend, counties in 35 states had to make 10-digit dialing mandatory. That’s because, in July, people in crisis will be able call the three digit code 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
"While it may be an inconvenience to folks where they do have to now dial 10 digits, I’m sorry about that. That sacrifice truly is saving lives, because we are expecting a three-fold increase in calls to the crisis center," Avey said.
It is enough for the state to notice, anticipating the demand, as the Department of Health Care Services provides more funding to expand all 13 crisis centers across the state ahead of July 2022 when 988 goes live.
"There are people 24/7, 365 days a year, waiting, if someone wants to be in that space with them, it’s a horrible space to be in and all too many people spend time alone in that space," Porteus said.
If you or someone you know is struggling, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for help at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
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